The Split Decision

05May

The question was asked, and the answer was received; in the form of a tie. My thanks to all who participated in my poll for which class I should level up next.

As I asked my readers which class they would like to see me level up next, Druid and Shaman came out in a tie. Druid took on an early lead, and I was pretty sure that it was going to stay that way. But, the Shaman continued to fight that uphill battle until they tied neck and neck shortly before I called the poll complete.

Since we had a tie on two classes, I will go ahead and roll one of each and track the leveling of both classes here on the blog.

Beldinn (Tauren Druid 6) [BELL-din]Herbalism X and Inscription X
I actually made Beldinn the day before I posted the poll, but did not do much of anything with him when I made him. I took the time to do all of his starting quests and move him on to the next area, and that was about as far as I got with him.

Beldinn is named after a character named Beldin from the Belgariad and Malloreon series written by David Eddings. In the books, Beldin is actually a deformed dwarf of a human that is rather ugly in both appearance and manners. He also happens to be a very powerful sorcerer, and when he shapeshifts into the form of animals he always turns into the most amazing, beautiful forms of those animals imaginable. He is frequently seen as a hawk, and since the druid is the only class with a flying form, it fit perfectly. He is one of my favorite characters in the book, and I decided to name a character after him because of it.

My original plan with the druid was to level him up alongside my wife’s shaman that she plans to roll soon. But where I am a leveling junkie, my wife is a raider. So I am not sure how often she actually intends to play with me when she has two characters, in two raiding guilds, on two different servers. So I might level the druid a bit slower than the shaman if I decide to keep it tied to her shaman, or I might just go right along by myself and level them both solo. Only time will tell.

Belgawrath (Orc Shaman 6) [BELL-guh-rath]Skinning X and Leatherworking X
I made Belgawrath last night after seeing how quickly the shaman class was climbing up in the poll results, and having found a significant lack of blogs dedicated to shamans. As with Beldinn, I went ahead and did all of his starting area quests and moved him on to the next area.

Belgawrath is also named after a character in David Eddings’ books, this time for Belgarath the Sorcerer. I pronounce the shaman’s name differently than the character’s name in the books, but I think it fits more with the character. In the books, Belgarath is the strongest sorcerer in the world save for the gods themselves, and was the first student ever to learn it. While all of the sorcerers can change their shape into whatever animal they might want to become, Belgarath is most often seen as a wolf. Since the shaman can become a spirit wolf, I found it only fitting.

Naming Convention
Since I made the characters based on a poll that resulted in a tie, I wanted their names to be somehow linked. Having them both come from characters in the same book was a good way to do that while also giving me, in a small way, an opportunity to pay a small tribute to an author and a story that are primarily responsible for my love of fantasy novels, which in turn is responsible for my love for RPG’s.

Poll Bugs
I am not sure what I might have done wrong in setting up the poll, but if you chose the Other option, then your vote did not get counted, nor did your response that you put in the box (if any). This was my first Poll, so I am sure I messed something up. Maybe I can get it right the next time.

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3 responses to “The Split Decision”

Those 13 books are my absolute favorite books of all time. I love them all.

I have a Pally named Polgara and really want a belgarath, i did not think of spelling the name wrong so i named my shammy shamsung. Which I thought was clever.

Beldin is certainly a colorful character. I am a big fan of his, and even having read those book 15-20 times (seriously, i am no exaggerating), it still brings a tear to my eye every time he and his girl turn into blue banded and violet banded hawks respectively and fly away.

The series was what got me started, so I honestly couldn’t tell you how many times I have read them. I can’t even take a guess.

I really wanted to go with Mandorallen for the name of my paladin, but it’s too long to fit. I didn’t want to chop it down any smaller, so I just went with Lexington instead.

I think the most memorable scene in the entire series for me was when Mandorallen handed his sword to Ce’Nedra just in case he couldn’t take the lion on with his bare hands. Now THAT is a freaking paladin in my book.

That was amazing, Mandorallen is another great character. I also made a rogue for my wife, first we tried Belf male tried Kheldar and silk, neither was available, so we tried belf female, tried velvet, not available, so we went with Liselle.

But still. It is exciting to hear someone like those books as much as I do.